Princess Madeleine: A dynamic and modern princess finally gets married and gains the love and peace of mind she's always wanted ♥!; But what about the music? Me, I'd have gone with "This Guy's In Love With You"; #madde, #sweden, #tihi, #bröllopet, @JesperParnevik, @MarcusCooks

Official Royal Court photograph of Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Mr. Christopher O'Neill by Ewa-Marie Rundquist, Stockholm, June 8, 2013. © 2013 Kungahuset.se  
See more of the official wedding photographs at http://www.kungahuset.se/brollopet/pressrum.4.4ea495e313c19c119aa48cc.html?searchKey=category&searchQuery=&showImagesOnly=true


SVT video: Prinsessan Madeleine fick sin Chris. Ett ”ja” – och ett ”I will” I dag gifte sig prinsessan Madeleine och Christopher O'Neill i Slottskyrkan i Stockholm.
PUBLICERAD 8 JUNI 2013 - 15:13 – UPPDATERAD 8 JUNI 2013 - 20:46
http://www.svt.se/nyheter/sverige/kungligt-brollop-i-stockholm

Princess Madeleine: A dynamic and modern princess finally gets married and gains the love and peace of mind she's always wanted ♥!; But what about the music? Me, I'd have gone with "This Guy's In Love With You"; #madde, #sweden, #tihi, #bröllopet, @JesperParnevik, @MarcusCooks

Well, I watched the whole  kungliga bröllopet, royal wedding, LIVE on Saturday morning here in Hallandale Beach via both SVT Play and TV4 Play, going back-and-forth at the beginning but mostly watching SVT after the "I will's" and  the "Ja's," 

Just like the annual Super Bowl, I pride myself on ignoring the lengthy pre-game coverage because at this point, you either fully know what's going on and everyone's back story or you don't, and I do with the happy couple, so I picked up the coverage right about 10 a.m Miami time and watched with great interest and amusement with my legal pad on one side of my desktop and some cold Dr. Pepper on the other. 

(I don't think I've watched more than five minutes of the annual marathon of pre-Super Bowl TV coverage since the last time the Redskins played, when I lived in Arlington County, VA -January 1992.)

I found it sort of amusing in a counter-intuitive way that in a country as cosmopolitan and outward-looking as Sweden that a TV commentator actually seemed a little out-of-sorts that so much English was being spoken, but then Chris is British and American, and his family and friends could hardly be expected to undergo a crash course in Swedish just to know what was going on and being said at the Royal Chapel.

And in his case, getting married on LIVE television, with millions watching, knowing that EVERYONE is focusing intensely on how he acts or any little mannerism or tic, it's not too much to ask that you get asked such important questions in English.

Above and below, some of my better screenshots; I'm having a problem with some of the photos, so I'll have more in the days ahead...











There were two pop songs that were sung very nicely once Madeleine and Chris were up front together for what what turned out to be quite some time actually compared to many weddings, royal, celebrity or otherwise.

Marie Fredriksson of Roxette sang "Ännu Doftar Kärlek" 

Just Click HERE:) YouTube Channel video: Marie Fredriksson "Ännu Doftar Kärlek"., from SVT1's coverage Uploaded June 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/FZkGjIHdHj4

and Peter Jöback sang Roberta Flack's Grammy-winning "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."

TheLpib1 YouTube Channel video: Peter Jöback "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" Uploaded June 8, 2013. http://youtu.be/szZinuE4bvI

If it were me choosing the music, instead of the latter song, I'd have chosen one which I know would have brought a big knowing smile to nearly everyone's face, and maybe even caused some people to sing sotto voce to themselves in church, since it's an instantly recognizable song that nearly everyone can sing because of the easy phrasing and tempo.
Herb Alpert's performance of Burt Bachrach's "This Guy's In Love With You"

thegoochman YouTube Channel video: Herb Alpert "This Guy's in Love with You" performed July 20, 1971. Introduced by The Carpenters, who recorded on his label, A&M Records. Uploaded March 8, 2008. http://youtu.be/4WZjqdPVaI0

I think you see what I mean.

Professional golfer Jesper Parnevik was a busy bee on Saturday, tweeting from the chapel, on the streets of Stockholm, on a boat and then at Drottningholm Palace.

Looks like all of Sweden is in Stockholm today..... twitter.com/JesperParnevik…
— Jesper Parnevik (@JesperParnevik) June 8, 2013

Finally I get greeted properly.... twitter.com/JesperParnevik…
— Jesper Parnevik (@JesperParnevik) June 8, 2013

Chris's speech at the post-wedding party about his late father brought everyone to tears:
http://www.aftonbladet.se/brollopet/article16930666.ab

Chris just delivered a speech that made everybody cry!! Now time to party!!! twitter.com/JesperParnevik…
— Jesper Parnevik (@JesperParnevik) June 8, 2013

And world-famous Swedish chef Marcus Samuelsson, in Stockholm from his famous Red Rooster restaurant in NYC, where he hosted a family get-together in May, tweets:

Great party. Last night thanks Princess Madeleine and Chris twitter.com/MarcusCooks/st…
— Marcus Samuelsson (@MarcusCooks) June 9, 2013

The wedding today is paid by the King of Sweden out of his own pocket, unlike last year's wedding, as HRH Victoria is the next in line
— Sweden.se(@swedense) June 8, 2013

* One last thing and I've gone back-and-forth on even mentioning this but....
There are, sadly enough, thousands if not tens of thousands of people in Sweden and elsewhere in the world whose lives are so miserable and full of bitterness -i.e. they have few friends and low self-esteem - that they have nothing better to do than troll on YouTube writing stupid and inane comments about the various videos regarding this weekend's wedding, insisting that Swedish taxpayers paid for everything associated with it, which is NOT true.
And that it's a conspiracy or it's this or it's that or...

No, Madeleine's father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, is a very, very wealthy man, and while he isn't Queen of England wealthy, he has the means and the desire to pay for whatever needed to be paid for related to his youngest daughter's wedding.
It's really as simple as that.

Madeleine, having the personality that she does and being fourth-in-line to the throne, knows perfectly well how bad it would look for everyone concerned if the taxpayers were being forced to pay for her wedding and the bridal flourishes within it.

If taxpayers paid for it, you would have heard about that already, wouldn't you, no matter where YOU live?
If that were the case, the very competitive Swedish news media would be in a feeding frenzy to get to the bottom of it, leaving no stone unturned or invoice ignored.
And even in the U.S. and Great Britain, whatever information the Swedish media had unearthed would've surely made its way into the American and British dispatches about the wedding in the months leading up to it, wouldn't they?
Of course.
If it was true and there was proof, that would be hard to ignore. 

But it isn't true.
You didn't read about it or hear about it because it's NOT true.

Roger Lundgren, the editor of a Swedish magazine about royalty, told Associated Press news agency the occasion was not as big as Crown Princess Victoria's wedding "because Madeleine is not a successor to the throne".

"Secondly, this is a private wedding - the king is paying for it himself," he added.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22823898

But some people, whether sheerly out of ideology or cynicism and bitterness can't accept reality.
They can't accept that their wanting it to be true in order to prove some political point, DOES NOT make it true.
Only supportable facts make it true, not ideology.

IF it were the opposite, that is, as all the oddball know-it-alls keep claiming, she would be properly mortified and no doubt insist the wedding take place in New York -where they already are living and plan to keep living- to prevent her father from being placed in a bad position.
Because her father has the means to pay the freight, the wedding was in Stockholm.
It's no more complicated than that.

I mention all this because I shared this small but fairly well-known fact yesterday with someone online, and this morning, I'm getting dozens of angry emails from people, mostly in Sweden and other parts of Europe, who insist that, contrary to the maxim proposed by the late U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, they are entitled to their own facts.
No, they're entitled to their own opinions, not their own facts.

It just seems very strange and quite sad to me that so many people want to take the time to show how truly uninformed they are to strangers who actually know the facts. 
Trust me, if I don't know something, the last thing in the world I'd want to do would be to contact someone who actually knows what they're talking about just to show how ignorant I was.
But clearly, everyone doesn't feel that way!

Especially people who spend an inordinate amount of time on YouTube watching videos that seem to make them angry politically.

Knowing what Madeleine has been through the past few years, I'm very happy for her that she can FINALLY have the life she's wanted all along, and has FINALLY found the peace of mind she's longed for...

But as these emails I've received make clear, lots of people want her to be just as plain miserable as them.
But she's not -she's very happy and relieved!

Again, the Royal Court photographs by Ewa-Marie Rundquist are here, so take a look: http://www.kungahuset.se/

Here's what Aftonbladet said about the pics: http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article16929613.ab

More info, photos and videos at:

http://bloggar.aftonbladet.se/hovbloggen/

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/live/1/

http://www.svt.se/prinsessbrollopet/gasterna-pa-vag-till-batarna

One year after the Royal Wedding, Crown Princess Victoria shows her resolve even while her parents' popularity -and the monarchy's- have tumbled

Aftonbladet video: Highlights from the wedding at Storkyrkan and afterwards.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/inrikes/article13171220.ab

06:33

If you watched the kungliga bröllopet -like me- you'll recognize the song performed above as the secret song commissioned by Daniel for the wedding that was kept under tight wraps until that very moment.

Here's the complete video of that singular performance, the cherry-on-top even before they left the church and took their stroll around the city by carriage and boat before returning to say "Tack."

SVT video: Agnes Carlsson & Björn Skifs - When You Tell the World You're Mine - Storkyrkan, Stockholm, June 19, 2010.

http://youtu.be/U2Qvh_FonSM

Aftonbladet video: Highlights from their first year of marriage

http://www.aftonbladet.se/webbtv/nyheter/inrikes/article13165551.ab

In the past year, even as Victoria's personal popular has increased, her parents' popularity and that of the Swedish monarchy in general have taken big hits from both republicans and an anti-monarchy media that sees the Swedish monarchy as... in short, an archaic construct in a modern era.
These groups see her parents as people whose ethics, trustworthiness, and general willingness to be straightforward about facts, to be MUCH LESS than they ought to be given their position in the country.
Especially in light of some facts that may prove more personally troubling than anyone can presently guess.

In May, in the U.S., the AP finally reported that Victoria's German-born mother, Queen Silvia, wants the longstanding questions surrounding her father's personal and professional activities and behavior in Germany and Brazil during the war to be re-examined.
This is usually referred to somewhat euphemistically in the news media as his "alleged Nazi ties." (Her mother was Brazilian.)

In the view of many of my well-informed friends in Sweden and other parts of Scandinavia, that moral cloud seems likely to get only more complicated, and some sensibilities may well be rubbed raw by the time the results are finally announced in the Fall.
(Though you're entitled to wonder where all this moral outrage is coming from now in a country that was officially neutral during the war.)

As to Victoria's father, King Carl XVI Gustaf, well, his personal behavior was the subject of an unflattering AP article in early June months after last year's publication of a not-entirely-believable book alleging many unsavory things.
That AP story made most major American newspapers and the cumulative weight of all of this has caused many people in Sweden to re-evaluate their personal feelings of respect for the king, even as his public 'explanation' -which I have watched a few times- only seemed to make things worse in the view of yours truly.

I suggest you read the AP story while you can before before they wipe this WaPo link clear.

Associated Press
Swedish monarchy under siege as king defends himself in strip club scandal.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/swedish-monarchy-under-siege-as-king-defends-himself-in-strip-club-scandal/2011/06/06/AGra25JH_story.html


New York Times
Some Doubt if Any King Is Still Fit for Sweden
By John Tagliabue
August 25, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/world/europe/25sweden.html



TheLocal.se
From wedding bliss to royal crisis: the state of Sweden's monarchy
By Clara Guibourg
Published: 17 Jun 11 09:41 CET
http://www.thelocal.se/34412/20110617/

On her big day, Crown Princess Victoria shows how it's done with aplomb -and wows Sweden again

Or, watching det kungliga bröllopet (the royal wedding) from South Florida via SVT on the Internet with almost no sleep whatsoever.

"What a glorious day for a wedding" was the the subject line for one of the emails I received from friends in Stockholm early Saturday morning, who were already making their way to favorite parade "spots" around town to watch the cortege after the wedding, even while I was trying to catch a few hours of sleep, so I could watch all the coverage on Sveriges Television (SVT) starting at 7 a.m. East Coast time in oppressively hot and humid Miami, where you can actually sweat going outside to pick up the newspaper.

SVT's coverage of everything was superb, so much better than I could've hoped, but as one scene after another fell on me, my biggest regret was that I couldn't be there in-person to share the moments with some good and loyal friends, many of whom had feared, as I had, that that day for Victoria and Daniel would never come.
Sometimes, there are no happy endings, even for real life princesses.

If you didn't take advantage of that invaluable SVT web information I shared with you on Friday, you missed one hell of a great wedding, as it was pitch-perfect, and the summer weather even cooperated, with no rain in Stockholm to douse everyone camped-out throughout the city to see the cortege.
Just mostly sunny skies and lots of smiles all around.

My screenshot, above, part of the royal procession in Stockholm on Saturday.

My screenshot, above, some of the throngs of happy people waiting to hear from the King and his daughter, Crown Princess Victoria, after her cortege around the city with new husband Daniel Westling.
The "True Love" balloon was a big hit among the ocean of Swedish flags, with one Danish and German flag also popping-up.


My screenshot, above, of a beaming Crown Princess Victoria and Daniel Westling in their horse-drawn carriage, with Queen Silvia, Princess Madeleine, Prince Carl Philip and King Carl XVI Gustaf waiting to meet them.

I will have a lot more to say about the weekend's events in the days to follow, and I think you'll find what I have to say of interest, especially if you are someone who knows the full story behind Victoria and Daniel finally making it to the altar all these years later.

As impressed as I've always been with the Crown Princess, and for reasons that I've never really mentioned here before in any great detail, I believe she really outdid herself this weekend by handling things with such aplomb and good humor.

All of these qualities, along with her well-known warm, down-to-earth personality, are ones that the majority of people in Sweden know about and respect, almost instinctively, regardless of whatever their own individual political position may be on retaining a constitutional monarchy, or despite what know-it-all foreign reporters, dropping-in for the ceremony this weekend, may have to say about her or the country.

Trust me, those people are very happy for her personally, and proud that she was more than up to the task confronting her with millions of people watching her every move on a day that she once thought might never come to pass.


My favorite screenshot: Crown Princess Victoria, how about a smile for the folks overseas? Alongside Daniel and her parents just moments before she made her short but moving speech that had people laughing -and crying.

Victoria's comments:

Kära, kära vänner,

jag vill börja med att tacka svenska folket för att ni har gett mig min prins.

Vi, min make och jag, är så otroligt glada och väldigt tacksamma för att så många vill vara här och fira tillsammans med oss.

Det är en enorm upplevelse, det är vår absolut största dag hittills i vårt liv.

Att känna ert stöd betyder mer för oss än ni någonsin skulle kunna förstå.

Det är något otroligt.

Idag är en dag som vi kommer att bära med oss i våra hjärtan för resten av vårt liv.

Tack!

SVT video of Victoria's speech to the Swedish people is at
Victorias tal till svenska folket
You can watch this SVT video until Monday July 19, 2011.

Selected video summary from Daniel and Victoria's wedding day in Stockholm on Saturday and the happy scenes that were shared across Sweden. http://www.tv4play.se/nyheter/nyhetskanalen?videoId=1.1686444

See more excellent videos of the myriad wedding events as well as analysis at:
http://svt.se/2.132586/det_kungliga_brollopet_-_livesandningen and http://www.tv4play.se/

Based on what I've seen so far, the best photos and articles have, predictably, been at
http://www.aftonbladet.se/ and and http://www.expressen.se/
They never disappoint.

Now these two organizations know how to put together an interesting and attractive news website, something the Miami Herald could learn volumes from as their pathetic website remains a complete mish-mash and industry-wide embarrassment.
Seriously, I cringe almost every time I go to it, dumbfounded at both its ugliness and complete uselessness, a very bad combination, indeed.

Also be sure to see the great Love Stockholm 2010 3-D photo collage of the crowds outside the royal palace as Victoria spoke: http://lovestockholm2010.se/EN/About.aspx
An ingenious idea well-executed.
Would be nice to see something this clever done in South Florida once in a while. HINT!

And check out TV4 LOVE 2010 trailer!
http://www.tv4play.se/noje_och_humor/nojesklipp?videoId=1.1648320
Wow!

As I said above, there's quite a lot more from me to come on the whole kungliga bröllopet, as well as my thoughts on a really fascinating behind-the-scenes documentary on Crown Princess Victoria that I recently saw which was almost like an eavesdropping C-SPAN TV camera, letting you see things you'd never otherwise never see.

I'll share my thoughts about it, but also give you information you need so that you can see it yourself and draw your own conclusions.
As always, seeing is believing.

------------------------------
http://www.stockholm.se/

Live TV coverage in North America of Saturday's royal wedding in Stockholm of Daniel Westling & Crown Princess Victoria

Official Swedish Royal Court photo of Daniel Westling & Crown Princess Victoria by Paul Hansen, 2010.


June 19th, 2010 10:35 p.m.

Sorry for the tardiness of this post but meant to upload this Thursday and got overwhelmed by other material that's also coming soon. I will have more information up in the next few hours, but wanted to be sure to put this information up now so that anyone wishing to watch tomorrow's exciting royal wedding, det kungliga bröllopet, above would know where they could turn.

SVT's LIVE wedding coverage from Stockholm to areas outside Scandinavia starts at 7 a.m. Eastern Saturday our time, and they even have a countdown clock.

http://svtplay.se/v/2046599/det_kungliga_brollopet/det_kungliga_brollopet_-_for_viewers_outside_the_nordic_region?cb,a1364145,1,f,-1/pb,a1364142,1,f,-1/pl,v,,2046054/sb,p104698,1,f,-1

Tonight, Friday night, SVT produced this interesting feature, just under an hour in length, that's a mix of news, actualities, history and pop culture, from SVT's perch near the kungliga slottet, royal palace
http://svtplay.se/t/104697/det_kungliga_brollopet

Also from Thursday, mostly from their royal perch that TV4 is calling the Bröllopsstudion, as well as with reports throughout Stockholm, here's a 22-minute news segment on the latest goings-on with the wedding details and the hoopla.
Warning -This opening visual is positively killer!

http://www.tv4play.se/aktualitet/brollopsstudion?videoId=1.1683750

Wish I could be there in-person with some friends of mine who are very psyched for the festivities to begin.